No charges for FedEx driver who fatally punched man calling him racial slurs

A FedEx driver was found legally justified in punching a man in Northeast Portland, who later died, after the stranger called the worker racial slurs and tried to hit the driver first, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

There’s no indication Timothy Warren intended to kill Joseph Magnuson when Warren’s punch connected above Magnuson’s left eye near Northeast Hoyt Street and Northeast 29th Avenue on Sept. 26, Senior Deputy District Attorney Adam Gibbs wrote in a memo declining to prosecute Warren. A county medical examiner later determined Magnuson was in “extremely poor health” beforehand and that his fall to the ground aggravated pre-existing medical conditions and led to his death.

Witnesses describe Magnuson as starting the conflict, yelling at Warren as the delivery worker was driving through the area. They said Magnuson repeatedly called Warren the n-word and “other aggressive and abusive phrases” after the driver stopped his truck and tried to speak with Magnuson about his behavior.

Gibbs wrote that Magnuson may still be alive if Warren kept driving, but “the decision by Mr. Warren, who is black, to not let the racist vitriol to which he was being subjected go unanswered is not of legal significance.”

“Oregon law contains no ‘duty to retreat’ and Mr. Warren was within his right to exit his vehicle and verbally challenge the manner in which Mr. Magnuson was addressing him,” the memo said. “Mr. Magnuson was the initial verbal aggressor; Mr. Warren responded in kind. Mr. Magnuson then escalated and became the initial physical aggressor; Mr. Warren again responded in kind.”

Monday was the first time authorities publicly announced Magnuson’s death and that it had been under review by the district attorney’s office. It marks at least the fourth homicide in Portland this year legally determined to have occurred in self-defense, and the third to happen while the person defending themselves was working.

Robert Porter, 53, was fatally shot by U-Haul employee Tyson Pfau, 27, in January after Porter came into a Southeast Portland business branch with a gun and demanded money, police said. Richard Hanley, 38, was fatally shot a month later by Joseph Vinci, 48, in a strip mall outside Vinci’s tattoo shop in Southeast Portland.

Sophia Adler, 33, fatally shot Gigi Pierce, 28, during a fight between the two in downtown Portland in May where authorities said Pierce was armed with a knife.

In this most recent case, witnesses reported Warren driving his FedEx truck slowly after turning east from Northeast 29th Avenue onto Hoyt when Magnuson started yelling “very aggressively” for Warren to slow down, according to Gibbs’ memo. The yelling continued after Warren stopped the truck and tried speaking to Magnuson.

At some point, both men were yelling at each other and Magnuson threw a drink at Warren. Some witnesses said Magnuson threw a bag of food at the delivery driver as well, but another said Warren knocked the bag knocked out of Magnuson’s hand, the memo said. Magnuson then threw a punch at Warren, missing him. Warren hit him once, then Magnuson fell to the ground and went unconscious, according to the memo.

Warren stayed at the scene as police arrived and cooperated with the investigation, the memo said.

Magnuson’s toxicology results weren’t available as of Monday, Gibbs wrote, but the findings “are not of significance to the legal analysis.”